A visitor from TOR is extraordinarily more likely to be abusive. It makes total sense to put up extra barriers, which is still short of blocking TOR users altogether, which is also fair for webmasters who don't want to deal with it.
And why is that again? I want to understand that argument.
In case of DDoS scenario: Well, too late, traffic already served and server already done the workload.
In case of password brute forcing: Well, then implement a latency, or cryptographical challenge to delay it more efficiently.
In case of "evil" human: Well, if a human can get past your security so easily, then your approach to security through obfuscation might be wrong.
So, again, what is the scenario where a captcha helps you to avoid being "attacked" by malicious actors?
My question is related to the specific /login page, not the registration page.
I understand the benefit for blocking spammer signups, but not for the current case of the login page where users have an account already, were verified that the account/password was correct (captcha appears in second step), and then have to enter a second decryption password manually.
In that scenario there's no argument on the "WHY" a captcha helps. It simply doesn't.
The only reason I can think of is because they want more unique identities. More unique people means a greater chance for a purchase. More mail accounts just cost more.
The entire business model of free accounts requires someone paying for something extra. By unique identifying people they can limit new accounts and increase their chances of an upsale.
What if they changed how they operated. Instead of looking for more unique identities why not accept multiple addresses and include an ad at the end of every free email letting the receiver know this came from protonmail. That would give a benefit for each email sent and provide more advertising and give users a reason to upsell?
My guess is having that ad after every mail would bother you (the customer) more than having your identity uncovered.
Does anybody else find that weird?
“I completely misunderstood Swiss privacy laws and fell for a sales pitch from an email and VPN company that goes out of its way to track every user no matter how they sign up! Its to avoid email abuse, exclusively!”